Richard Schell

Richard Schell (15 May 1810-10 November 1879) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NY 9) from 7 December 1874 to 3 March 1875, succeeding David B. Mellish and preceding Fernando Wood.

Biography
Richard Schell was born in Rhinebeck, New York in 1810, and he worked as a Wall Street speculaotor, a wholesale dry-goods merchant, and an agent and lobbyist for Cornelius Vanderbilt in New York City. From 1858 to 1859, he served in the State Senate as a Democrat, and, in 1865, he was hired by William H. Seward to lobby for votes from Democratic House members to obtain passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. From 1874 to 1875, he served in the US House of Representatives to fill a vacancy, and he died in 1879.